The Night We Met (2026) is a novel by Abby Jimenez and the second installment in the Say You’ll Remember Me series. The story centers on the effects of a missed opportunity after a concert, when Larissa went home with Mike instead of Chris, the man with whom she’s more compatible. The novel follows Larissa and Chris as they move through emotionally constrained friends-to-lovers and boyfriend’s-best-friend dynamics. The novel explores themes of Loyalty as an Ethical Principle, Economic Precarity Shaping One’s Sense of Agency, and The Courage to Choose an Unfamiliar Path.

This guide refers to the 2026 Hachette eBook edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, sexual violence, emotional abuse, mental illness, addiction, substance use, and cursing.

Plot Summary

Two months before the novel begins, Larissa, the protagonist, got stuck at a concert without a ride home. She and her friends had met a group of men whom they befriended, and two of them—Mike and Chris—were able to give her a ride home. Though Chris had mentioned that he lived closer to Larissa, Larissa thought that Chris seemed intimidating and crabby, so she drove home with the more extroverted and charming Mike, whom she began to date.

At the beginning of the novel, Mike calls Chris for a favor and asks him to take his girlfriend Larissa and her mother to an appointment at the hospital since Larissa’s car is at the mechanic’s and Mike is too hungover to drive. Chris begrudgingly does the favor for his longtime best friend but can tell how upset Larissa is when they arrive at the hospital. To cheer her up, Chris takes her to breakfast at a restaurant that can accommodate her serious nut allergy. He and Larissa begin to bond with one another. On the way back to the hospital, Larissa spots a stray dog that Chris takes to the vet and adopts.

Though Larissa wants to be better friends with Chris, he doesn’t know how to feel about seeing Mike’s girlfriend more often. In spite of Chris’s better judgment, he and Larissa continually find themselves thrown together, even ending up with shared custody of the rescue dog, named “Woofarine.” They’re brought together several times by Mike’s inability to show up for Larissa due to his hangovers or inebriation, leaving Chris to take his place. Chris becomes worried about Mike’s drinking—which has increased significantly lately—as he knows it’s a coping mechanism that Mike has used for his anxiety since high school.

Larissa goes on a trip to Mike’s family cabin with several of his friends, but Mike has to go early, so she drives there with Chris. Though she has a great time on the drive, Larissa is surprised to see Mike so drunk when she gets there. She attributes this to the party atmosphere but notes how different Mike is when he’s drinking and how it seems like he can’t stop himself. At a party a few weeks later, Mike promises to drive them both but gets so drunk that his friends have to take him home. Larissa spends the rest of that night with Chris, who asks about her interests, gets her dinner, and gets her home safely.

Larissa has always struggled financially, especially over the last few months. Her absent father used her social-security number to accrue debt on various credit cards. She has to work various odd jobs to get by, but the ones she prefers most involve preparing food. Chris notices this and gets her some supplies to start selling snack boards for parties and events. Chris continually does things to help Larissa or make her happy, often without her knowing. He begins to feel a constant urge to help her in any way he can, partly because he’s recognizing his feelings for her but also because he feels bad for covering for Mike, who should be doing many of these things. Chris continually tries to get Mike to change his drinking habits and consider his mental health, and after the disastrous party, Mike agrees to do so.

Though Larissa is somewhat hesitant about her relationship with Mike, she decides to move in with him but doesn’t tell Chris. When Chris learns about this, he does everything he can to distance himself from Larissa, even dating a new woman. The night before Larissa is supposed to move in with Mike, she goes over to his place to find him passed out drunk on the floor. The next morning, Mike heads to the cabin early without recollecting anything from the previous night. Larissa finally recognizes how serious Mike’s drinking is and wants to tell Chris but feels like there has been distance between them lately.

Larissa plans to tell Chris about Mike’s drinking on the car ride up to the cabin but can’t when she notices that Chris has brought along his new girlfriend. Even though he’s trying to forget her, Chris still makes sure to take care of Larissa, removing all the products with nuts in them from the cabin’s pantry because Mike forgot to. At the cabin, Larissa tells Mike what happened before he left, and he promises to change. Larissa isn’t sure if she wants to be with a man who can’t take care of himself. Meanwhile, one of Chris’s friends has started to realize that he has feelings for Larissa and talks with him about how he can never act on those feelings because it would end his friendship with Mike. After arguing with both Mike and Chris, Larissa breaks up with Mike, telling him to change for someone else.

Mike goes to a bar with his friends and gets drunk after he tells them that Larissa broke up with him but won’t explain why. When they return to the cabin, Mike’s friends have to pull him off Larissa as he forcibly kisses her. Immediately, Larissa’s lips start tingling, and Chris knows that Mike must have eaten nuts. Larissa goes into anaphylaxis. The others can’t find her EpiPen, but Chris has always kept one on him since he met Larissa. He administers it to her before punching Mike.

Chris takes Larissa home and asks her to stay with him for a while, knowing she won’t be able to stay at Mike’s but also wanting to have her near so that he can help her. After Larissa threatens to leave if he isn’t honest with her, Chris tells her about all the things he’s done for her that she hasn’t noticed. He nearly admits his love for her but says that they could never be together, given his friendship with Mike. Over the following weeks, Chris questions whether or not his relationship with Mike will ever be restored and if he even wants it to be, given everything he did to Larissa. Larissa is finally able to relax as she stays with Chris, not having to worry about financial struggles and having Chris’s support to build her catering business.

Chris’s friends begin to worry about him because he refuses to talk to them, but he knows that telling the truth about his feelings for Larissa would end all his friendships. Though he’s still conflicted, Chris doesn’t want to hurt Mike, whom he hears has started working on improving himself in the hope that he can get Larissa back one day. One of Chris’s friends comes to visit and sees that he’s still living with Larissa and criticizes him for it. Feeling guilty for the dissolution of Chris’s friend group, Larissa offers to move out. The two of them argue about whether or not their relationship has any future, and Chris realizes how much he’s hurting Larissa by putting Mike’s feelings about them first. Just before Larissa is about to leave, they kiss.

The two finally begin a relationship, though Chris still worries about what will happen when his friends find out the truth. One day, Mike visits Chris at work to apologize for everything he’s put him through. Through reflection and therapy, Mike has begun to work on his mental health. He knows that Chris and Larissa are together, despite their attempts to hide it, and knows that they’ll be good for each other. Mike promises to get better for Chris, whom he realizes is even more important to him than Larissa.

Months later, Larissa and Chris’s relationship is on the mend, as is Chris’s relationship with his other friends. Larissa plans to open up a storefront for her business. She and Chris finally feel like they no longer need to hide their love for one another.